Your games and entertainment anti-blog: No cursory updates, memes or gut reactions here.

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Games are increasingly regarded as worthwhile relative to how well they can match the proficiencies of older media. But the argument that games match older media as art overlooks an integral aspect of the form. Continue reading →

Often has the question been asked “are video games art?” The answer each person gives to that question depends, as it often does, on their personal definition of the terms. What defines art? How do we know when something we see is or is not art? To each person it seems some things simply ‘are’ … Continue reading →

While playing The Godfather back in 2007, my friend’s father walked into the room just in time to see my character ‘Aldo’ throw a random passer-by against a wall and beat him senseless. The old man was outraged by this, lecturing us about the ‘junk’ we were playing. His reaction is not uncommon, I fear, … Continue reading →

Immersion – the diminishing of one’s awareness of their physical self in favour of a virtual one – is big money in games and always has been. In the arcades immersion meant more coins in the slot. Today it means greater hype, better brand loyalty and a more satisfying final product. You know this. What’s … Continue reading →

Although the modern video game is a digital entertainment medium that is in some ways comparable to other entertainment media, it was long before that (and remains today) a modern sub-stratum of imaginative ‘play’ as well as of technology and story-telling. This play is unique to games as a medium and is an aspect often … Continue reading →

10:00am There was once a time, I assume, where one’s level and kind of productivity was limited by geography. Today, for example, I’m taking a trip from Melbourne to Bendigo. It’s easy to imagine a pre-internet time where such a trip would separate me from my work and my more productive hobbies, making for a … Continue reading →

I recall some time ago a movement among so-called ‘hardcore’ gamers to eschew the word ‘play’ as it pertained to games. Instead of, for example, saying “what have you been playing”, they would say “what have you been gaming”. The problem with the phrase ‘playing games’ of course is that it’s very close to ‘playing with games’ … Continue reading →